Bodyscan Meditation Technique

Here our body is our object of meditation. It is an excellent exercise, derived from the world of yoga, meant to relax our body and enjoin silence on our mind….

The body scan is an excellent exercise that is often done at the end of a yoga session, but for many people it also forms part of their daily meditation exercises. The exercise is also often done (sometimes under a different name) as a relaxation exercise in warming ups, in stress management courses, in psychiatric therapies, etcetera. It is an excellent exercise for begin-ners. If we do this exercise in a lying posture we prevent the kind of problems that we might encounter while sitting. For beginners it is therefore advisable to do this exercise while lying.

In this meditation our body is our object of meditation. We make a journey through our body in which we flood every part of it with attention. Every time when our mind strays away we draw it back to the body part that it should be focussed on. In this way we train our powers of focus and concentration. During this exercise we also try to be aware of and to feel all physi-cal sensations in our body. We become more and more aware of which parts of our body are less relaxed and we become more and more conscious of the effects of relaxation on our mus-cles, our posture and our organs. In this way we develop the kind of body awareness and the kind of sensitivity for our physical sensations that many of us have lost during our lifetime. We often hear that as a result of this exercise and our breathing exercises many people begin to appreciate, accept and experience their body in a more positive manner. If you do this exer-cise more regularly you will notice that your physical sensations vary every time and that you can control these sensations better and better. If you experience problems during this medita-tion because, to give an example, you have difficulty feeling certain body parts or you be-come aware that certain body parts cause pain, the best thing to do is to accept these feelings and to try not to be bothered by them.

In short: if we do this exercise regularly then it will help us to experience deep levels of re-laxation. It will help us to achieve a higher level of body awareness and body acceptance. It will teach us to deal in a better way with physical sensations and aches. And last but not least: the exercise will improve our power of concentration and our self confidence. As is the case with every form of meditation we should try not to judge ourselves, we should try not to get angrier with ourselves if things do not work out so well and we should not be too goal-oriented. Every time you breathe out you should try to relax the part of the body you are fo-cussing on. Let us begin.

Exercise: Bodyscan Meditation

1. Sit down or lie down, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing.
2. Be aware of every breathing in and breathing out. Let your breathing be something automatic, do not try to control it.
3. Observe how the air slowly passes in through your nose, fills up your lungs and goes out again.
4. If, after a few breaths, you feel at ease and fine we start with our scan.
5. Direct your attention to your forehead. Try to feel the skin, try to be aware of any twin-kling or tension that might be there and relax by means of breathing.
6. If you do not feel anything at all, that is all right.
7. Allow yourself to feel nothing at all.
8. Do the same with your nose, your ears, your eyes, your eyebrows, your jaw, your mouth, your lips and the skin of your face and the back of your head. Feel how the mouth and the jaw relax and how the eyes sink back into their sockets.
9. Then direct your attention to your neck, your collar bones, your shoulders, your left upper arm, your right upper arm, your elbows, your lower arms, your hands and fin-gers. Concentrate on each of these areas one by one, both left and right.
10. Every time your attention wanders off, do not panic but calmly return to the area where you had last been.
11. Again: try to feel and to experience all sensations.
12. If you can do this, try with every breathing out to relax the area that you are concen-trated on.
13. Direct your attention to your chest, your diaphragm, your belly muscles, your upper back, your lower back, your spine.
14. Be aware of how your breathing, perhaps also your body posture, changes as a result of the relaxation. Does not your body feel different already?
15. Go on in this manner and direct your attention to your pelvis, your sex organs, your but-tocks, your two upper legs, your knees, your lower legs, your ankles, feet and toes. Take your time!
16. Notice the differences between the various areas. Feel the twinklings in your body, feel how your muscles get more and more relaxed and observe which body parts are rela-tively hard to relax.
17. Let yourself become extremely heavy. Now you are totally relaxed and at ease.
18. When you have refreshed and relaxed your entire body, return for a while to an area in your body that felt relatively tense. Concentrate wholly on that particular area and try to make it feel relaxed. Do you feel the difference? Does it call forth certain thoughts or emotions? Observe and let things go.
19. Finally: tighten all your muscles for three seconds and do this twice and after each tight-ening let things go on a breath.
20. All right, slowly take your attention back to the rest of your body and the noises in the room. Move a little, stretch your muscles a bit and open your eyes.
21. Finished!

Breath Meditation Technique

This is a good meditation exercise for both beginners and more advanced students. It strengthens your powers of concentration and observation. Besides: it also helps you with physical problems.

The following meditation looks a little like the well-known body scan meditation. The difference is that in this meditation our breathing is the object of our meditation. We steer our breathing through the body to relax our body and to flood it with attention. In this way we train our powers of focus and concentration. During this exercise we also try to observe and to feel the sensations in our body. We become more and more conscious of where our body is less relaxed and what is the effect of relaxation on our muscles, our posture and our organs. Every time you breathe out try to relax the part of your body that you are focussed on. Every time when our mind wanders away we return to our breathing and we go on where we had stopped. As is the case with every form of meditation we try not to judge, we try not to get angry when things do not go so well and we try not to be too goal-oriented. Let us begin!

Steering your Breath through your Body Exercise

1. Sit down or lie down, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing.
2. Be aware of every breathing in and breathing out.
3. Let your breathing be something automatic, do not try to control it.
4. Observe how the air slowly passes in through your nose, fills up your lungs and goes out again. If, after a few breaths, you feel at ease and fine you start with a deep breathing in.
5. Visualise that when your lungs are filled up your breath passes through your body to your left foot. When you breathe out the oxygen goes out from your left foot and via your lungs it goes back to your nose and leaves your body.
6. Visualise that when your lungs are filled up your breath passes through your body to your left lower leg.
7. When you breathe out the oxygen goes out from your left lower leg and via your lungs it goes back to your nose and leaves your body. Feel the difference with your right lower leg. Does not your left lower leg feel different?
8. Visualise that when your lungs are filled up your breath passes through your body to your left knee. When you breathe out the oxygen goes out from your left knee and via your lungs it goes back to your nose and leaves your body every time you begin to think of something different from your breathing or you start to feel something different from your breathing, observe this and just return to your breathing.
9. Breathe in and let the air pass through your body to your left upper leg. Breathe out and let the oxygen go out from your left upper leg and via your lungs let it go back to your nose and leave your body.
10. Breathe in and let the air pass through your body to your right foot. Breathe out and let the oxygen go out from your right foot and via your lungs let it go back to your nose and leave your body.
11. Just keep on steering your breathing through your body in the way described above.
12. Steer your breath to your two hands, lower arms, elbows, upper arms, shoulders, chest, diaphragm, belly, sex organs, buttocks, lower back, upper back, neck and head.
13. Notice the sensations caused by the steering of your breathing. Notice the differences between the various areas. Feel the twinklings in your body, feel how your muscles get more and more relaxed and observe which parts of your body are harder to relax.
14. Let yourself become totally one with your breathing.
15. When you have refreshed and relaxed your entire body, return for a few breathings to an area in your body that felt particularly tense.
16. Breathe in and let your breath pass through your body to that particular area. Breathe out and let the oxygen go out from that area and via your lungs let it go back to your nose and leave your body.
17. Keep on doing this as long as you like and, if necessary, just go to other areas in your body to which you want to pay some extra attention.
18. All right, slowly take your attention back to the rest of your body and the noises in the room. Move a little, stretch your muscles a bit and open your eyes.
19. Finished!

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